Sage/Sorcerer Leveling: 21-40 DPS

29Feb

In the 1-20 guide I went over two specs for DPS leveling but this time around we are going to look at three. The first two will be Full Telekinetics/Lightning and Full Balance/Madness, and the third will be a hybrid of the two which is also my personal favorite.

For those of you who are interested I do have a healing version of these guides in the works that I will also be posting Soon™. I’ve got a level 30 Sage that I just switched over from Balance that I had a lot of fun healing with, so now I’ve got a baby Sorcerer who’s going to level as a healer to give me a view of the 10-30 range so that I know what the crap I’m talking about.Playing a Sage/Sorcerer
As I mentioned before, the Sage/Sorcerer is the only “true” caster in SWTOR, and you’ll very much get that feeling while you play. That being said, the three specs I have for you today all have their own feel.

The Telekinetics/Lightning build follows the turret casting style, meaning that you will spend most of your time standing in one place as you cast spells over and over that have a cast time or a channel. Telekinetics is a spec that is really based around crits, so it’s great at burst damage.

The Balance/Madness build is a lot more mobile as it employs spells that have no cast time and talent points that percentage chance to make some of your cast time spells instant instead. Balance is more focused on DoT damage, and though it does have a couple of nice bursty tools available, it’s really made for sustained damage over time.

The hybrid spec combines the two DPS trees to get better damage and Force management from one and the better mobility from the other, turning it into one incredibly good multi-target damaging machine. This spec does a really good job of combining the strengths of both specs into one and helps to address Balance’s lack of burst by adding instant-cast Force Waves into the mix.

The Sage/Sorc class has some really incredible utility at their disposal. In addition to your good damage you also have healing spells, a damage-negating bubble, great crowd control, a Force Speed “sprint”, a ranged interrupt, and very solid AoE and/or multi-target damage capability.

Important Spells & Abilities
As a Sage/Sorc you do have quite a few different spells at your disposal. Some of them you won’t likely use all that often, such as your healing and cleansing spells, and others of course are your bread and butter. Luckily, even though we’re covering 20 levels worth of material here, there aren’t all that many new spells that you’ll pick up. You will get several chances to increase the ranks of your existing spells, but as far as brand new additions go you’ve only got a handful.

I’ll also point out just for completion’s sake, that level 25 is when you’re able to learn Speeder Piloting and can get yourself a mount. The training alone costs 40,000 credits (another 8k for a mount if you don’t already have one), so you’ll want to watch your spending habits up to that point. The level 25 version of speeder training allows you to ride a 90% speeder. At level 40 you can train the second rank of Speeder Training for another 210,000 credits (and 25k for a speeder that can go that fast), but you only get another 10% speed (100% total increase) for that price.

The Consular Sage versions of each spell is shown in Republic Blue, and the Inquisitor Sorcerer version is noted in Imperial Red as is fitting. Numbers in parenthesis is the level at which the spells become trainable.

Forcequake/Force Storm (34): Channels the Force into the ground at the target location, causing it to quake and tremble. All enemies within 8 meters of the target location are struck for kinetic damage over 6 seconds and knocked off balance, reducing movement speed by 30%. In addition, standard and weak targets have a 33% chance to be knocked down by the quake each second.

Force Slow is a good utility spell. For PvE it’s occasionally useful if you’re trying to solo hard content as you can use it on melee opponents and then run circles around terrain while you let your DoT’s kill them off. For PvP this spell is amazing.

Restoration/Purge is definitely more of a PvP spell as far as leveling is concerned. As of level 43, I believe I’ve used this spell twice for PvE content and it wasn’t necessary at all I just used it because I actually had a debuff I could use it on and so I did. For PvP this is a spell you definitely want to keep around, especially when you’re facing other Sage/Sorcs as you can remove all the Force DoT’s out there.

Tumult is a really cool looking spell where you do a jumping, spinning kick to the face. The damage it does is surprisingly high, and I do find it useful when I’m using the Balance/Madness or Hybrid spec. I have used it as Tele./Lightning, but I prefer to simply kill them off with spells most of the time. The benefit of this spell is that it’s instant cast so if you have an incapacitated target near you then you can save yourself a cast time by finishing them off with this instead of a spell, but I’ll leave it totally up to you if you ever use this or not.

Cloud Mind is our threat dump, useful only in PvE. Any time you’ve got a mob trying to beat up on you when they should be beating up on someone else, Cloud Mind is your answer. All of the group play I’ve done lately was with another DPS class for questing, and I usually end up face tanking everything anyway just because of my bursty damage spikes, so I don’t really use this while leveling.

Forcequake/Force Storm and last but not least we come to our spammable AoE spells. The damage on these is great, there’s no limit to the number of mobs that you can hit with it, it applies a slow effect to those it hits, and it can knock down weaker mobs which takes them out of the fight. When it comes to cool looking spells, Force Storm pretty much tops everything else in the entire game. The Bounty Hunter’s Death From Above spell is pretty cool, but it’s got nothing on Force Storm. Of all the Sage vs. Sorcerer animation arguments out there, this is the one case where I hands down give Sorcs the reward because Forcequake is crap compared to Force Storm.

Leveling a Sage/Sorcerer
Playing a Sage/Sorc in this bracket is much the same as it was in the previous bracket, except that our new spells both from being higher level and from taking new talent points means we’ve got a lot more that we can do in terms of rotation.

I’ll break these rotation listings down into groups for each of the three specs that I’m covering, because each of them will do different things in different situations. We’ll look at Trash Packs which contain Weak and Standard enemies in groups of 1-7, Strong Packs which contain Weak/Standard/Strong enemies in groups of 1-5, Elite Packs which contain one or more Elite (gold star) mobs, and Champion/Boss mobs which are the best of the best.

If you’re facing a group of mobs with an Elite in them and you manage to kill all of the weaker mobs off first, then you’ll want to switch to the Champion/Boss rotation to finish off the big mob that remains unless their health is so low that you can finish them with a simple Project or Telekinetic Throw. Using your DoT spells on a mob that’s weaker than Elite is typically a waste if you’re going to use your AoE spells.

***Concerning trash packs, the only reason I list Project/Telek. Throw in the rotation is because they are instant spells that deal damage quickly after activating them, making them a great choice for finishing off mobs that are at low health when compared to casting Disturbance over and over with its cast time. Project in particular is not a good spell for Telekinetics as a spec because the force cost is high compared to its damage. Telek. Throw is fine for the spec, but it’s very low on your priority list unless you have a Psychic Projection proc that makes it tick faster. In terms of Force cost and damage output, Project and Telek. Throw are “bad” choices for you, which is why I’m listing them in a rotation against trash packs as you can easily refill your Force between pulls.

Now, Sages of all specs don’t actually work off of rotations. Instead, they follow a priority list because there are several talents that have a chance to proc special bonuses or benefits when various things happen. You can follow a general rotation and do just fine while you’re questing, but if you want to actually maximize your performance then you need to know and follow this priority system:

For the Telekinetics spec, Weaken Mind is crucial for your damage because (1) it guarantees a critical hit from Turbulence, (2) its crits are how you proc Psychic Projection for faster Telekinetic Throw ticks, and (3) it deals nice damage and has a high crit rate. Disturbance is the second highest priority, but only until you reach three stacks of Concentration for increased Force regeneration at which point it drops to the bottom of your priority list until Concentration is about to expire.

Mind Crush seems a bit odd for the spec because you have almost nothing to boost the spell’s performance, unlike the Balance tree, but it still does very good damage and should not be passed up in a fight that will last long enough for it to deal its damage. Turbulence is the final ability in the Telekinetics tree, and with Weaken Mind active on a target it’s guaranteed to crit, so it follows only your DoT’s and your Force regeneration in priority.

Telekinetic Wave follows if you have a Tidal Force proc to make it an instant-cast, otherwise it can wait. Telekinetic Throw follows a similar pattern, having priority only if you have a Psychic Projection proc, otherwise you shouldn’t waste time casting it with this spec.

Disturbance is at the bottom of your list as it’s your filler spell to be cast at all times when the rest of the priority list has already been met. Disturbance is a big deal for the spec because it’s the key to your Force regeneration and some of your procs.

With this spec you’re going to utilize a lot of instant-cast spells and DoT damage. DoT’s are a big thing for you because you’ll apply a debuff with your Force in Balance/Death Field that boosts your DoT damage by 20%. Presence of Mind/Wrath procs will be used for instant Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness casts unless they’re on cooldown. It’s better for a full Balance build at this level to save the procs for Mind Crush casts, even if it’s on cooldown, because Disturbance is pretty worthless for you. If you can finish a mob off with a instant Disturbance then you might as well (if you don’t already have DoT’s on them that will do the job), but otherwise save those procs for your DoT’s.

Balance also follows a priority system if you really want to maximize your performance. Not everyone can keep track of a priority system effectively, so you can certainly fall back on the rotations above if you’re struggling, but here is your Balance/Madness priority list:

Force in Balance tops the list because it’s the source of your 20% increased DoT damage debuff, not to mention it does really good damage on its own. Weaken Mind is next, even though you don’t currently have the talents that really make it great, it still does great damage and has a long duration.

Sever Force is next as yet another DoT spell with a cooldown, followed by Mind Crush to burn off those Presence of Mind procs to make it an instant-cast. You don’t want to bother with Mind Crush if you would have to spend time hard casting it (meaning you don’t have an instant proc), but you shouldn’t have many problems getting Presence procs as long as you’re not wasting them on Disturbance casts. If you’re fighting multiple mobs then you’ll want to be sure to apply these DoT’s to new targets if they’re already established on one target rather than replacing the existing DoT with a new version.

Project deals good damage as Balance thanks to Upheaval’s 30% chance to make it a double-cast for 50% more damage, and it’s another instant spell which is why Balance is so fantastic on the move. Telekinetic Throw is your filler spell since you’ve removed its cooldown and it now restores Force every time it deals damage.

In SWTOR, clipping your DoT’s (which is reapplying them before the first cast has finished ticking) is a bad thing, so if your DoT is already on the target you don’t need to cast it again until it’s about to wear off. The one exception to this is Mind Crush when you’re facing a single target. If you have a Presence of Mind proc, go ahead and cast Mind Crush even if its DoT is already active. Mind Crush deals initial damage when it’s applied, and you’re robbing yourself of additional Presence of Mind procs if you’re not using them just because the DoT is already active.

As you can see, when facing anything weaker than an elite (gold star) you can destroy them with your use of AoE. Start off with your cast-time AoE, follow it up with your instant-cast AoE, and follow that with spells that clean up the few that remain or with your channeled AoE if multiple mobs are still alive with more than about 20% of their health.

When you add an elite or two into the mix then you want to use the same type of rotation to kill off the weaker mobs first, but you’ll also utilize your instant crowd control spell to remove the largest threat while you finish off all of the others. Force Lift/Whirlwind will heal an Elite or Champion level mob, but that’s fine as the point is to kill all of the weaker targets in the pack first and then deal with the strong one on their own.

When you’re fighting single Elites, Champions, or bosses it’s time to get serious about your rotation. As with the other two specs above, your real rotation isn’t a rotation at all, but a priority system. As a general guideline, you can follow the rotation that I have listed. The idea here is to establish your DoT’s to start off the fight, followed by your instant AoE (though you don’t get the talent that explains why until 43), then your channeled filler spell (Telek. Throw/Force Lightning), and then Project/Shock. From there you want to go off of priority in order to maximize your DPS and your Force pool.

If you can handle working a priority system, then here’s where your actual priority is:

Weaken Mind is important because it’s going to trigger your Psychic Projection proc that will make Telekinetic Throw deal all of its damage in half the time. Telekinetic Throw only takes priority above the other spells when you have a Psychic Projection proc to make it channel faster, otherwise you want to cast the other spells in order.

Mind Crush comes next if you have a Presence of Mind proc that will make it an instant cast. Telekinetic Wave follows Mind Crush, but only cast this spell if you have a Presence of Mind proc and you don’t already have Mind Crush on the target. DoT damage is a big deal for you even at this level, so you’ll want to prioritize Mind Crush over Telekinetic Wave if you don’t already have both DoT’s ticking. With other talents you’ll also receive Force regeneration from Telekinetic Wave casts.

Project is next as it deals very nice damage in this spec, particularly if you manage to score a double-cast from your Upheaval talent (tier 2). Telekinetic Throw is last on the priority list because it’s your filler spell. Telek. Throw is how you proc Presence of Mind which is what feeds two of your main spells in the priority list and it restores Force while you’re casting it, so it’s a very important spell to use as filler for several reasons.

Levels 21-30Telekinetic Balance/Madness 1/1: Telek. Throw/Force Lightning no longer has a cooldown.Psychic Barrier/Sith Efficacy 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Mind Crush/Affliction and Telek. Throw/Force Lightning by 75%. In addition, each time your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 100% chance to recover 1% of your total Force.Presence of Mind/Wrath 1/1: When your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 30% chance to cause your next Force-damaging attack with an activation time to activate instantly and deal 20% more damage.Containment/Haunted Dreams 2/2: Lowers the activation time of Force Lift/Whirlwind by 100%. In addition, when your Force Lift/Whirlwind breaks early from damage, the target is stunned for 2 seconds.
***Pinning Resolve/Oppressing Force 2/2: Reduces the cooldown of Force Stun/Electrocute by 10 seconds. In addition, your Force Lift/Whirlwind affects up to 2 additional Standard or Weak enemies within 8 meters of the target.Force Suppression/Deathmark 1/1: Force in Balance/Death Field increases the amount of damage the targets suffer from your next 10 periodic damaging abilities by 20%. Lasts 30 seconds.

***Optional Talents: Pinning Resolve/Oppressing Force is a talent that’s almost completely worthless at end game, but it’s good while leveling. If you don’t want to take a talent now that you’ll want to respec out of later on, then you might want to replace the 2 talent points in this talent with Focused Insight/Parasitism instead, which causes your DoT crits to heal you for 1% of your total health.

Levels 31-40Drain Thoughts/Force Horrors 2/2: Increases the damage dealt by Weaken Mind/Affliction by 15%.Assertion/Lingering Nightmares 2/2: Increases the duration of Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness by 2 seconds.Mental Scarring/Creeping Death 3/3: Increases the critical damage of Force in Balance/Death Field and your periodic damage abilities by 10%.Psychic Absorption/Devour 2/2: Increases the amount of healing generated by Force in Balance/Death Field and Focused Insight/Parasitism by 100%.Sever Force/Creeping Terror 1/1: Weakens the target, freezing it in place for 2 seconds and dealing internal damage over 18 seconds.

Levels 21-29Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage 2/2: Weaken Mind/Affliction critical hits have a 100% chance to granting Psychic Projection/Lightning Barrage, causing your next Telekinetic Throw/Force Lightning to channel and tick twice as fast. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.Mental Longevity/Reserves 2/2: Increases your total Force by 100.Tidal Force/Lightning Storm 1/1: Your Disturbance/Lightning Strike has a 30% chance and your Forcequake/Force Storm has a 10% chance when dealing damage to grant a Tidal Force/Lightning Storm, immediately finishing the cooldown on Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning and reducing the activation time of your next Telekinetic Wave/Chain Lightning by 100%. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.Telekinetic Effusion/Lightning Effusion 2/2: Force attacks that critically hit have a 100% chance to grant Telekinetic/Lightning Effusion, lowering the Force cost of your next two Force abilities by 50%. Additionally reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 10 seconds.Kinetic Collapse/Backlash 2/2: Your Force Armor/Static Barrier has a 100% chance to explode in a concussive wave when it ends, incapacitating all nearby enemies for 3 seconds. Damage causes this effect to end prematurely.

**I split this tree into two portions a bit differently than the others because the level 30 talent isn’t quite as clear-cut in this instance. Being able to increase your alacrity for 10 seconds every 2 minutes is a pretty big deal, but so is increasing your damage output. I have the talents listed in the order that I suggest you take them in, but feel free to make your own choice about which order you take those first three talents in.

This is the hybrid spec that I’m currently having a total blast playing. You can go about getting this spec a few different ways. You can either reach the stopping point in one tree and then start filling in the other, or you can level fully in on tree and then respec at 38+ to get the baseline hybrid and then continue on from there.

My suggestion for leveling a Sage/Sorc is to start off at level 10 with the Balance/Madness tree until you reach level 20, and then continue on with this spec. If you are already Telekinetics/Lightning, then I suggest you take a look at my 1-20 guide and compare your spec to the spec I’m about to outline here so that you obtain the key talents for the build, and then start taking the talents in the screenshot above from the Balance tree to fill in your blanks.

For this progression list I’m going to assume you’re starting at level 20 as Balance/Madness:

Levels 21-30:Telekinetic Balance/Madness 1/1: Telek. Throw/Force Lightning no longer has a cooldown.Psychic Barrier/Sith Efficacy 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Mind Crush/Affliction and Telek. Throw/Force Lightning by 75%. In addition, each time your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 100% chance to recover 1% of your total Force.Presence of Mind/Wrath 1/1: When your Telek. Throw/Force Lightning deals damage, you have a 30% chance to cause your next Force-damaging attack with an activation time to activate instantly and deal 20% more damage.Inner Strength/Electric Induction 3/3: Reduces the Force cost of Force attacks and healing abilities by 9%.Mental Longevity/Reserves 2/2: Increases your total Force by 100.

These four options are listed in the order that I would suggest you take them in.

The first makes your CC ability an instant cast which is a pretty big deal, not to mention you’re adding a stun effect for when it’s broken early. If you need to CC a mob mid-combat then you don’t want to have to waste the time casting your CC spell when you could spend two talents to make it instant and get at least some amount of ensured control out of the deal.

The second option gives you some healing back any time your DoT’s crit. The healing is really small, but it does add up and can really be great if you’re able to spread your DoT’s around to several targets at once. I’d rather have instant CC personally, but this is a solid second choice.

The third option isn’t all that great because one of the four spells it enhances you’ll never have access to because this spec is a hybrid, and another (Disturbance/Lightning Strike) you’ll never actually cast. Mind Crush/Crushing Darkness and Telek. Wave/Chain Lightning are both spells that you’ll be using often, so increasing their damage is a good idea. With half of the talent essentially wasted though, it’s a bit harder to justify spending points here compared to the other choices.

The last option is again good for while you’re leveling but nearly worthless once you’re at max level. I mention it because I find it a great tool for soloing and questing, and it’s especially useful when combined with the first option that makes Force Lift/Whirlwind and instant cast spell.

Thank you. There are a lot of ranged classes in the game. In fact, they kind of dominate the available classes. Still, the Sage/Sorc is the only one that’s really a caster. I’m working on a guide for another class that has given me somewhat of a similar feel to a caster that I’ll have out before too long as well.

I’ve had a blast playing my Sage/Sorcs though. They’re still my favorite class overall and I love playing around with all three of their talent trees. I’m not a huge fan of the Shadow/Assassin though they seem to be a big flavor of the month class right now in end game PvP from what I’ve been told.

You’ll definitely want to level above 20 though, because things just get exponentially cooler from that point on.